Concealed 1890's Spoon Brake Designs

[Jesse McCauley]

I'm sure many of you have seen some of the variations of "concealed" spoon brakes of the 1890's but upon a bit of digging I've found there is no such thread dedicated so here we go.

I've seen a few variations of complicated and interesting concealed spoon brakes, most seem to be independent inventions that are then adopted by any given company though that is almost certanly not a universal.

The first brake I found of this style was mounted to a Stearns, it was designed by the Spencer company and was exceptionally complicated- graphic to follow -


I spent a couple hours more recently trying to re-mount the tension spring of a spoon brake inside the steer tube of an early Lady Ide. Despite the time consumption the design was rather straightforward, just a matter of having to re-think the engineering / building process and do it backwards after cleaning (i'll post a few pictures when I can get on my phone)

Today though I am playing with a brake I don't quite understand.... Gendron Signal No. 3 with a brake that runs through the side of the stem. I'm curious what the arm or plunger would look like as it is missing and the design is not intuitive for me.

Pictures to follow (I think I may still be at my tapatalk picture limit so maybe tomorrow?)

 

[Freqman1]

@Phattiremike

 

[Rambler]

Concealed Spoon Brake Designs:
Ingo-Bike comes to mind, though the brake lever is exposed the rest of the mechanism is concealed. I often get the question from people that see my Ingo-Bike "Where's the brake?"

 

[Jesse McCauley]

Here's what I mean!
Ca. 1897 Gendron Signal No. 3 -
24" wheel model with BOTH catalog optional paint jobs !
From the Referee in 97' :
"The Regular finish is black, with delicate gold ornamenting and striping, but option on maroon with gold, or orange with silver, ornamenting and striping is given."

It appears they used the orange as a primer layer and put maroon overtop? Open to interpretation of what I'm seeing but the effect is killer nonetheless.

I'm not sure how to figure this brake though, I added the nut and bolt after I adjusted the remaining dangling participle. I'm fairly sure this is how it is meant to be assembled but obviously missing something. My thinking after studying the mechanism and the bars / brake area for signs of mounting : you can see a shadow between the spoon brake mount on the bars and the stem, I believe there was a plunger there that attached to the spoon arm and activated the brake in that manner. The catalog mentions no such brake at least in 97', maybe by 98'?

I've never seen a comparable style of brake in terms of the lack of pivot point for a traditional arm, anyone else having better luck making sense of this thing than I am?

Many thanks folks! I'll post the bike in its entirety shortly -

 

[Phattiremike]

I’ll share some pictures of my concealed spoon brake in the morning. I posted them when I acquired the bike.

The design of mine is different from yours Jesse.

Great bike!

Mike

 

[Craig Allen]

Speirs of Boston 1896-1898 had them.